A majority of the timepieces used today are wrist watches. For normal use, the wrist mounted watch is adequate for its intended purpose. There are, however, certain occasions when the wearing of a wrist watch to tell time is either inconvenient, impractical or even unsafe.
Some examples of the above include dentists, hygienists, doctors, and nurses who wear laytex gloves when coming into contact with patients which makes the wearing of a wrist watch inconvenient. When the same personnel wear long sleeved medical gowns, the observance of a wrist watch is completely obscured so the same is useless for determining time. In working around machinery and in numerous other similar environments, the wearing of a wrist watch can become extremely dangerous for a mirad of reasons.
The use of pocket watches in the various environments discussed above is usually impractical due to the difficulty and time required to remove the watch from a pocket and observe the same.
Various clip-on timepieces have been disclosed but these are usually relatively heavy and awkward to use. They tend to be loosely mounted which at best is a nuisance and at worst can be dangerous by coming into contact with machinery, etc. These clip-on timepieces also can be easily disengaged from the material supporting the same.
In the various situations discussed above, it is quite often very desirable that the user of the timepiece be able to readily determine the time without having to look up at a wall clock, pull down protective gloves, or pull up protective sleeves.